An IMG reader has informed us of a new Kickstarter campaign to fund the creation of Project: Gorgon, a new 3D fantasy MMORPG for Mac, Windows, and eventually Linux PCs. The game combines elements of both classic and modern MMOs and is designed for "players who want to explore a deep world with complex game systems and a tight-knit community that is friendly enough to actually chat while they group." An alpha version of Project: Gorgon is available to download now.

Emerging From An MMO Dark Age

"We already have plenty of MMOs," you may be thinking to yourself. "This is just another generic fantasy game. I've already played this."

No, you haven't. And unless you've been playing MMOs for over a decade, you may not even know what you're missing!

A decade ago, World of Warcraft came out and changed the MMO industry forever. It's an amazing game, and completely worthy of its success, but it had a nasty side effect on the MMO industry: other game companies saw the success this game had, and suddenly every business plan was to "be the next World of Warcraft." (I was there, making MMOs. It was a weird time.)

Each new MMO tried to copy as much of WoW as possible, assuming that was the secret to capturing the same audience. And now, a decade later, the term "MMO" is almost synonymous with this sort of directed MMO experience. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun experience! But it's only one possible kind of MMO.

If you've been playing MMOs for the better part of the last decade, you might be bored of them. You might naturally assume you'd seen everything there is to see in the genre. Fortunately for you, you couldn't be more wrong.

Go And Find Adventure

Originally, each new MMO found its own balance between the two extreme design ideas of "tight, directed game”, or “immersive, explorable world". After World of Warcraft, MMOs all seem to use the same answer. But we answer this basic dichotomy in a totally different way.

Project: Gorgon heavily rewards exploration. Go poke in corners and see what you find! Entire dungeons, hidden NPCs, all kinds of items, even entire skills and abilities... all waiting for you to discover.

Don't worry if that sounds intimidating! There'll be a solid tutorial, of course (and you can see an early version in the game right now). And to help get you started, we'll have "directed storylines" that are akin to classic MMO quest lines, and help tell the overarching story. But once you're comfortable, we hope you'll go exploring – because most of Project: Gorgon doesn't have signposts.

Immersive World Through Game Mechanics

When you play Project: Gorgon, we want you to feel like you're immersed in a whole new virtual world. Rather than try to manage this with just some pretty graphics and excessive backstory, though, we’ve designed the game with dozens of gameplay features that make you feel like you're really there, interacting with the world, such as:

If you're on fire, you can jump in a lake to put it out. That kind of real world touch can have a subtle effect on your strategies – especially when you’re fighting a fire mage!

You can drop items on the ground, and other players can pick them up. What's so great about that? Imagine laying down a trail of literal (virtual) breadcrumbs to lure one of your friends into the woods.

Shopkeepers really keep inventory, so you can buy the items other players sold them. Want to help out the newbies? Sell your cast-off uber weapons to the shopkeep in the newbie zone and watch them go to town.

Each non-player character (NPC) you meet has their own goals and interests, and rewards players that choose to be their friend.

You can inscribe messages on items, write books, even leave notes for other players. Make your name as an in-game poet, or just record your best kills on your sword.

And lots more subtle but very immersive stuff like that. These aren't the big features that make an MMO, but all of them combined make for a very unique world feel.

The Project: Gorgon Kickstarter is currently in progress and will be successful if $100,000 is gathered before the campaign ends on September 27.